Citybeat 96.7/102.5FM

I’m usually not much of a one for listening to the radio, so as such, most of my friends are singing along to all the latest songs, and I’ve never even heard of them, because I’m so busy listening to my own CDs.
But I have to say, if I am going to listen to the radio, it would only ever be Citybeat. Out of every station I can pick up, this is definitely the best.
They play a good mix of songs, and when there is ‘talk’ it is easy to listen to, plus, their Saturday night playlist is not all that house music rubbish that another radio station I can name plays.
The only other radio station that would come anywhere close, music wise, is Radio 1, and I never listen to that because there is WAY too much talking on it, and their presenters think they are funny when they are really, tragically not.
I’m surprised Citybeat got such low ratings from the other reviewers, I think it’s pretty good!

Is it unfair to say that something is God-​awful?
Perhaps it is a tad. But I like to start as humanly negative as possible and then work my way back to be more polite and finish of a positive…
Short review then…
Look, to me it is a carbon copy of another Belfast radio station which claims to be ‘Cool’… any prizes for guessing which one I mean? It plays pretty much the same music and it has a few live events which are pretty similar to that of its cooler brother. But for me it all seems to be the step before Cool FM… rubbish I said it… because it certainly is not as good. The presenters are harmless, the music is pretty standard and everyone who likes those nice boys Né-​Yo and Lady Gaga will probably put this on in the background.
But realistically, there are a few radio stations out there that cause a bit more fuss and a bit more excitement than CityBeat. While it’s not totally terrible, I tune in to Cool FM first and whenever they play a song which I have already heard that day (which is frequent as their song catalogue stretches to about 11 songs, two of which by Gaga himself) I would switch over to CityBeat and find they are doing the exact same, and then Hey Presto, the radio goes out the window and I start punching things.
Not great.

Citybeat isn’t what you would call my number one radio station, but it deserves a mention after broadcasting across the city for the past thirteen years. With the arrival of newer stations e.g. U105 /​Feile Fm Citybeat has gone down in the past years, I remember back in the day when the station would have played decent (though repetitive) music. I was a child though so maybe my memories are blurred… The station still runs strong though; Stuart Robinson still does his show; The Stuart Robinson Show on every Friday from 1pm. Having been here since the launch of City Beat in 1996, this makes Stuart their longest serving presenter. The station also runs the ‘Citybeat Young Star Search’ every year which is a X Factor style competition for young talent around the area. Last year the station was awarded the Gold ‘New York Award’ for this competition. Alongside this award they have won; Arqiva station of the year two times, five Sony Gold Awards and in 2009, three New York Awards and 2 Silver/​Keeping up to date with the times, last year they launched the Citybeat iphone app which allows users to tune in via the handset. I wonder how popular this is? Not very I would imagine! Poor station!

Citybeat is one of those radio stations that I grew up with, listened to it in the car to school every morning, and now barely recognise it. Such a shame, because I did love it so.
In an attempt to update the station, it undergoes frequent changes, namely the switching around of DJs, the introduction of new ones, and the removal of old ones. I find it incredibly difficult to keep track of who’s doing which slot, and even when you think you know what’s what, they change it again. Argh, frustration! One such example of this is Stewart Robinson, who used to do a brilliant job with WEB (Work Experience Boy) on the breakfast show (6−10am), and was probably the only definable DJ on Citybeat at the time. Now he has been moved to an afternoon slot, and try as he might to keep the show fresh, it just doesn’t work as he is much better suited to that early morning show. Plus the fact that the last time (granted, it was a couple of months ago) I was listening out for him, they’d stuck some other guy on instead.
I completely agree with Declan on the song repetition front. A couple of years ago, the station introduced a feature linked to this matter, and decided to keep the entire period from 9am to 5pm free from repeated songs. If a listener heard a song twice in that timescale, they were to phone up and would be awarded a prize. Unfortunately, it seems they had done away with this feature, and each time I have turned on the radio this week, I have heard Robyn’s «Dancing on my Own». It’s a great song, and I do indeed end up dancing all by myself, but when you hear it three times in one day, it does get a bit monotonous.
One of Citybeat’s saving graces’ is the fact that it does play a good deal of 80s tracks (I love 80s music), much more than it’s rival stations. Furthermore, the DJs are very listenable, much more so than on other stations, and they generally play music rather than talk rubbish, which I feel is a problem for other stations too.
Not the best radio station around, but I still have a slight soft spot for it…

In the shop that I used to work in for five years, Citybeat was the mandatory station that we had on in the background, which has given me a long time to mull over the medocrity of this station.
Citybeat aims itself at the slighly older market of30−50 year olds, with a mix of music from current hits to hits from the 80s. However that is where the problems start.
The playlist on this station is so old and tired. You hear the same hit soongs of today beind played every about 3 hours, which is really grating. Even when songs are niot played numerous times during the day it is the same old songs all the time: there is nothing new or fresh, and there is no desire to showcase anything new or fresh.
An example of this is that my brother and I had a game when he worked at the same shop as me. We would bet each week what would be played first after nine: Summer of 69 or Born in the USA! It became strangely competive, and there was always a winner, as the same songs got played at the same times, 24/​7, 365, fade to repeat…
TheDJs are all pleasant enough to listen to but there is no discerible individuality to anyones programs. It is one grey sludge of a station: please try harder people!